TEDxRiverCity with Robert Stickgold

TEDxRiverCity was held June 8, 2010, and featured Dr. Robert Stickgold, Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Director of Harvard's Center for Sleep and Cognition. He studies the role of sleep and dreaming in learning and memory processes. He has studied how dreams change in response to mental challenges, ranging from computer games to living in a zero gravity environment on the International Space Station. This talk, Sleep, Memory and Dreams: Fitting the Pieces Together, answers the question: What is sleep doing for us?

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About TEDx, x=independently organized event

About TED

TED is an annual event where some of the world's leading thinkers and doers are invited to share what they are most passionate about. "TED" stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design - three broad subject areas that are, collectively, shaping our future. And in fact, the event is broader still, showcasing ideas that matter in any discipline. Attendees have called it "the ultimate brain spa" and "a four-day journey into the future." The diverse audience - CEOs, scientists, creatives, philanthropists - is almost as extraordinary as the speakers, who have included Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Frank Gehry, Paul Simon, Sir Richard Branson, Philippe Starck and Bono.

TED was first held in Monterey, California, in 1984. Chris Anderson's Sapling Foundation acquired TED from its founder, Richard Saul Wurman. In recent years, TED has expanded to include an international conference, TEDGlobal; media initiatives, including TED Talks and TED.com; and the TED Prize. TED2010, "What the World Needs Now," will be held Feb. 9-13, 2010, in Long Beach, California, with a simulcast event in Palm Springs, California. TEDGlobal 2009, "The Substance of Things Not Seen," was held July 21-24, 2009, in Oxford, UK and TEDIndia was held in November 2009. In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TED has created a program called TEDx.